Coldplay have responded to the latest plagiarism claim about their song Viva La Vida by insisting that they "haven't done anything wrong".

Will Champion, Coldplay's drummer, was answering Yusuf Islam's claim that the band copied his 35-year-old song for their recent hit. "It's tough when people accuse you of stealing something when you know that you didn't," Champion told Hampton Roads. "We're confident we haven't done anything wrong."

Islam claims that Viva La Vida borrows from Foreigner Suite, recorded when the singer-songwriter was known as Cat Stevens. Islam's is the second recent plagiarism claim, with American guitarist Joe Satriani already suing Coldplay for copyright infringement.

Viva La Vida has been a worldwide chart-topper and won this year's Grammy award for best song.

"For some reason, God only knows why, the successful songs that seem to be the ones that are accused of being stolen," Champion said. "So you go figure it out." Despite these comments, Champion also seemed to accept the similarities between Coldplay's song and the others. "There are elements of our music that I've heard in other people's music," he said, "but it's kind of ... I don't know. It's interesting, but a very difficult thing to define."

"There are only eight notes in an octave and no one owns them. And there are probably about 12,000 songs that feature the exact same chord progression. I think it lies on an intent to steal, which we certainly have never done and never would. So it's unfortunate but it's the way people are. That's that."